Tulare woman uses faith in battle against breast cancer

Editor's note: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In recognition, Inspire will feature a story about the battle against the disease every week during October.

Jan Smith comes from a family of believers.

So when the Tulare resident was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma —the most common type of breast cancer— she wasn’t about to stay home, roll up in a ball and ask, “why me?”

“I’ve been a fighter all my life,” she said. “I’ve always challenged myself, but this definitely took its toll. I can’t say I was happy, happy every day. Physically it’s impossible. It drains you of energy.”

Those that know Smith know that not even breast cancer was going to stop the Tulare Hospital Foundation’s executive director from living the life she lived it before her diagnosis.

Mary Jane Barwick is one of those that knows Smith best. The two met more than a decade ago and have worked together for several years.

“She is absolutely amazing,” said Barwick, a foundation board member since 2010. “I have never seen anyone go through the treatment program she's gone through and crawl out of bed every single day. She puts on her makeup, puts on her wig, puts on her clothes and comes to work. If you look at her, you would never guess she was ill.”

Finding the problem and removing it

Smith was sitting at home, watching television and had a small itch. When she reached around to scratch it, something didn’t feel right.

There was a lump.

After unsuccessful attempts to get into Tulare Regional and Kaweah Delta medical centers for mammograms, Smith went to Porterville.

“The more time was going by the more worried I became because it was something totally odd,” she said. “I was finally able to get into Sierra View Medical Center and as luck would have it, they were the only one at the time that had the 3D mammography scanner. That machine is like half a million dollars.”

In September 2015, Smith found out she had breast cancer.

“Because the cancer I had wasn’t aggressive, they said I didn’t have to make a decision right now. I said, ‘oh yes I do, I want this out.’”

A month later the lump was removed. Chemotherapy started a month after that.

“There’s no history of breast cancer in my family. It was just my number I guess,” she said. “…any time you have cancer you can die from it. Any time you have surgery you can die from it. Anything can go wrong. Of course, when you hear the c-word your first thing is you have to catch your breath. I'm not a robot.”

There was chemotherapy every three weeks, then some radiation and now it’s Herceptin every three weeks until November.

Doctors want to make sure the cancer is gone and won’t return.

While cancer and its treatments haven't slowed Smith down during the day, it does take its toll after long days of work. Smith also owns and runs a consulting firm in Tulare.

“It’s been a crazy year, I can tell you that,” she said. “My energy level has changed. People that see me say I haven’t, but I personally at the end of the day when I go home, know I’m wiped out. When I’m at work I stay busy and stay focused.”

Changing her attitude

After her diagnosis, Smith knew she couldn’t change the fact she had cancer. One thing she could do is change how she approached it.

Smith could change her attitude about it from day one.

“They say your attitude is everything. Not giving up and staying with your daily routine,” she said. “…because I’m going through this experience, something good is going to come from it. I believe that.”

That good coming from it may someday be the latest mammography scanner on the market.

As Smith sat in the Central California Oncology office in Fresno, looking and thinking, she wondered why Tulare didn’t have this. Or even Visalia. Why couldn’t a Tulare County city have all the services cancer patients need under one roof?

“After I was diagnosed, one of the things I really, really wanted to do as the foundation director is raise funds to get a 3D mammography scanner for Tulare Regional,” she said. “That’s still my goal.”

Smith believes there’s no reason the latest technology, those specialties and the best doctors shouldn’t be in Tulare.

“I do believe that Tulare, after the dust settles, will come together and heal emotionally, spiritually, physically and I think they will get together and get this [new TRMC tower] built,” she said.

Life after cancer

Since her diagnosis, more and more friends and family members have contacted Smith to ask her opinion on things like breast cancer doctors and treatments.

It isn’t a simple answer.

“I’ve always told them, you need to go and meet with doctors and only you will understand how you feel with them,” she said. “My relationship with my doctor and the staff at Central California Oncology is based on my particular case, but every case is different.”

For those going through their own breast cancer journey, Smith said speaking to someone who has gone through it helps tremendously.

“Not just because she's my mom, but she's probably the strongest person I know. With everything she's gone through, she continued working,” said Jennifer Ayala, one of Smith’s three daughters. “…all three of us are very proud of her.”

For more than 20 years, part of that work has been for Relay for Life, an organized, overnight community cancer fundraising walk that takes places across the country every year.

In Tulare, Relay for Life is on Oct. 8 at Bob Mathias Stadium.

“I’ve always been involved in philanthropy and nonprofit work. I’ve always believed, to whom much is given, much is required. I’ve been blessed with a lot of good experience, know a lot of wonderful people and have been involved with a lot of difference organizations,” she said. “I was raised with a very strong sense of community.”

Smith already knows it's going to be an emotional day. It’s going to be the first Relay for Life she’s attended since her diagnosis.

“It's very emotional because I'll be part of the survivor's lap and part of the ceremony and because cancer did hit me," she said. "It did touch my life, but it's not going to take my life.”